Master plan: Montezuma Castle/Tuzigoot National Monuments, Arizona

Montezuma Castle National Monument; Tuzigoot National Monument

Sociological as well as physical changes in the environment are exerting pressures on the traditional methods of using and managing the areas in the National Park System. Coinciding with the development of the Civil Rights Movement has been the development of a demand for public cognizance of our diverse ethnic heritage. There is an increasing awareness of the contribution of the black man to the development of the American heritage. But we have not yet fully acknowledged that the threads of the red man are a part of the fabric of our individual multi-racial and multi-ethnic cultural heritage. In the Southwest archeological and historic areas is a fantastic opportunity to vveave the brilliant threads of the American Indian - both ancient and modern - into a relevant experience for today's visitors. Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments, sharing a Sinagua cultural heritage, a Yavapai-Apache occupation, a historic Anglo settlement period, and the promise and threat of the developing Verde Valley, offer these opportunities. The master plan for Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments developed here as a joint plan, will attempt to establish the base and the guidelines for the realization of these concepts of our cultural heritage. This plan will also emphasize the need for coordinated planning by all the divergent interests operating in the Verde Valley. (Copied verbatim from the plan.)